This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, these statements are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is or is not prior art.
For cereal grains, the quantitative value of post-harvest losses (PHL) in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated at more than USD 4 billion annually. Huge losses are also incurred and probably a lot higher in perishables (fresh fruits and vegetables). The lack of affordable drying technology to meet the needs of both small and medium scale farmers is one of the major reasons why this problem still exists. Food loss is an often forgotten major contributor to food insecurity. Further, food losses cause a waste of resources including land, water, energy, agricultural inputs, and human labor that are used in production of the lost food. This has a significant negative impact on climate, the environment, and livelihoods of those involved. Data show that the lack of a low-cost effective drying technology was the single limiting factor causing high PHL, high aflatoxin contamination and low agricultural productivity in the major maize production regions in Ghana. Findings confirmed the need to focus on developing a low-cost farmer-owned drying technology for grain crops grown in this region. The findings are quite similar to regions in the humid tropics of Africa, Asia, and the Americas where crop harvest coincides with the rainy season, making open-air sun drying a challenge. Open air sun drying on roof tops, tarps, concrete pavements and tared roads has been practiced for decades and still remains the major method used by smallholder farmers for drying crops. While open-air sun drying is a cheap method for drying, it unfortunately depends on the use of a large area and favorable weather. It is labor intensive and leads to product quality degradation during drying and contamination by fecal matter and dust from livestock and vehicles, respectively. As of yet, there has been no innovative technology that has been widely adopted for use by smallholder farmers. There is therefore an unmet need for widely scalable drying solutions for multiple drying applications.